John Lynch (4)

This book accompanied the BBC's mini-TV series (2002), which illustrated the earliest human history, following the wildly popular ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ (1999). In the TV series, the presentation was annoyingly enough outsourced to Robert Winston who walks among the prehistoric people like a kind of cartoon character in safari gear. Fortunately, you are spared of that in the book. But that contains plenty of other goofs. This series uncritically follows a number of speculative theories show more that, although launched by paleontological scientists, are highly controversial in their own midst. For example, homo erectus (about 1.5 million years ago) is without hesitation attributed the capacity for language and the beginning of monogamous relationships; and our own species, homo sapiens, is endowed with the unique faculty of imagination, a faculty apparently completely lacking in all previous species.

Even more annoyingly, the whole series is permeated with an absolutely old-fashioned anthropocentrism, portraying modern man as the culmination of evolution, through his ability to step outside the limitations of life (meaning nature). This leads to a very teleologically loaded storyline, in which especially the 'journey towards us' is highlighted. This kind of approache seems detrimental to a balanced understanding of human evolution. I guess the authors and creators of this series were completely guided by the laws of the TV genre, which forced them into a positive, progressive storyline, without sense of nuance and criticism. I do not understand that scientists such as Steven Mithen and Chris Stringer contributed to this. show less

A companion piece to the TV special that is really more of a coffee table book than anything else. Lavish color pictures enhance the text, and frequent sidebars help to explain interesting concepts, but prove somewhat of a distraction and interruption of the text.

If you are interested in the way we humans have developed and interacted with the world since our beginings then this is the book for you. Very detailed and fascinating insight into human history.

Traces the history of scientific discovery from antiquity to modernity.